There were lots of unprovoked attacks on both sides. I saw a number of WNs pepper spraying people who were simply yelling in their direction. There's plenty of blame to go around. I do agree that if the anti-protester people had let them have their march, there probably wouldn't have been any violence, but the WNs wouldn't have considered that a success. They wanted the anti-protesters to show up. They wanted a fight.
Yep. It's clear they both geared up for confrontation. They both wanted to fight. Well. Except for the alt-right beta geek. He apparently geared up to search for water the whole time and practice his "military" speak.